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On this page: Delectus – Delia – Delictum – Delphinia – Delphis – Delubrum

DELIA.

not be raised from the property of the deceased. (Dig. 29. tit, 5. s. 25.) In the senatns consul turn quoted by Frontinus (DeAquaeduct.), the informer received half of the penalty in which the person was fined who transgressed the decree of the senate. There seems also to have been a fixed sum given to informers by the lex Papia, since we are told that Nero reduced it to a fourth. (Suet. Ner. 10.)

The number of informers, however, increased so rapidly under the early emperors, and occasioned so much mischief in society, that many of them were frequently banished, and punished in other ways, by various emperors. (Suet. Tit. 8, Dom. 9 ; Mart. i. 4 ; Plin. Paneg. 34 ; Brissonius, Ant, Select, iii. 17.)

DELECTUS. [exercitus.]

DELIA (SijAia), the name of festivals and games celebrated at the great panegyris in the island of Delos, the centre of an amphictyony, to which the Cyclades and the neighbouring lonians on the coasts belonged. (Horn. Hymn, in Apoll. 147, &c.) This amphictyony seems originally to have been instituted simply for the purpose of re­ligious worship in the common sanctuary of Apollo, the &€&s TtarprSos of the lonians, who was believed to have been born at Delos. The Delia, as ap­pears from the Hymn on Apollo (compare Thucyd. iii. 104; Pollux, ix. 61), had existed from very early times, and were celebrated every fifth year (Pollux, viii. 104), and as Bockh supposes, with great probability, on the sixth and seventh days of Thargelion, the birthdays of Apollo and Artemis. The members of the amphictyony assembled on these occasions (e06c6pow) in Delos, in long gar­ments, with their wives and children, to worship the god with gymnastic and musical contests, choruses, and dances. That the Athenians took part in these solemnities at a very early period, is evident from the Deliastae (afterwards called (becapoi) mentioned in the laws of Solon (Athen. vi. p. 234); the sacred vessel (3-ewpk), moreover, which they sent to Delos every year, was said to be the same which Theseus had sent after his re­turn from Crete. (See the commentators on Plato, Crito9 p. 43, c.) The Delians, during the celebra­tion of these solemnities, performed the office of cooks for those who visited their island, whence they were called 'EAeoSyrcu (Athen. iv. p. 173).

In the course of time the celebration of this ancient panegyris in Delos had ceased, and it was not revived until 01. 88. 3, when the Athenians, after having purified the island in the winter of that year, restored the ancient solemnities, and added horse-races which had never before taken place at the Delia. (Thucyd. I. c.) After this re­storation, Athens being at the head of the Ionian confederacy took the most prominent part in the celebration of the Delia; and though the islanders, in common with Athens, provided the choruses and victims, the leader (apx^ewpos), who conducted the whole solemnity, was an Athenian (Plut. Nic. 3; Wolf. Introd. ad Demosth. Lept. p. xc.), and the Athenians had the superintendence of the com­mon sanctuary. [amphictyons.]

From these solemnities, belonging to the great Delian panegyris, we must distinguish the lesser Delia, which were celebrated every year, probably on the 6th of Thargelion. The Athenians on this oc­casion sent the sacred vessel (3-eo>pis), which the priest of Apollo adorned with laurel branches, to Delos. The embassy was called frewpia: and those

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DEMARCHI.

who sailed to the island, &e«po£ ; and before they set sail a solemn sacrifice was offered in the Delion, at Marathon, in order to obtain a happy voyage. (Miiller, Dor. ii. 2. § 14.) During the absence of the vessel, which on one occasion lasted 30 days (Plat. Pkaedon, p. 58 ; Xen. Memorab. iv. 8. § 2), the city of Athens was purified, and no criminal was allowed to be executed. The lesser Delia were said to have been instituted by Theseus, though in some legends they are mentioned at a much earlier period, and Plutarch (Tkes. 23) re­ lates that the ancient vessel used by the founder himself., though often repaired, was preserved and used by the Athenians down to the time of Deme­ trius Plialereus. (Bockh, Publ. Econ. of Aifi. p. 214, &c. 2d edit. ; Thirl wall, Hist, of Greece, vol. iii. p. 217.) [L. S.]

DELICTUM. [CaiMEN.]

DELPHINIA (SeA^wa), a festival of the same expiatory character as the Apoilonia, which was celebrated in various towns of Greece, iii honour of Apollo, surnamed Dephmius, who was considered by the lonians as their &ebs Trarpwos. The name of the god, as well as that of his fes­tival, must be derived from the belief of the an­cients that in the beginning of the month of Muny-chion (probably identical with the Aeginetan Delphinius) Apollo came through the defile of Parnassus to Delphi, and began the battle with Delphyne. As he thus assumed the character of a wrathful god, it was thought necessary to appease him, and the Delphinia, accordingly, were cele­brated at Athens, as well as at other places where his worship had been adopted, on the 6th of Muny-chion. At Athens seven boys and girls carried olive-branches, bound with white wool (called the ker?7pi«), into the Delphinium. (Plut. Thes. 18.)

The Delphinia of Aegina are mentioned by the scholiast an Pindar (Pyili. viii. 88), and from his remark on another passage (Olymp. vii. 153), it is clear that they were celebrated with contests. (Compare Diog. Lae'rt. Vit. Thai. c. 7 ; Miillsr, Dor. ii. 8. § 4.) Concerning the celebration of the Delphinia in other places nothing is known ; but we have reason to suppose that the rites observed at Athens and in Aegina were common to all festivals of the same name. See M tiller, Aeginet. p. 152. f [L. S.]

DELPHIS (5eA$is), an instrument of naval warfare. It consisted of a large mass of iron or lead suspended on a beam, which projected from the mast of the ship like a yard-arm. It was used to sink, or make a hole in, an enemy's vessel, by being dropped upon it when alongside. (Aristoph. Equit. 759 ; Thuc. vii. 41 ; Schol. ad loo. ; Hesych. s. v.) There seems no necessity for sup­posing that it was made in the shape of a dolphin. Bars of iron used for ballast are at the present day called " pigs," though they bear no resemblance to that animal. Probably the 8eA</>?V€S were hoisted aloft only when going into action. We may also conjecture that they were fitted, not so much to the swift (ra%eTaz) triremes, as to the military transports ((rrpaTiuTto'es, oirXirayajyoi), for the sailing of the former would be much impeded by so large a weight of metal. At any rate, those that Thucydides speaks of were not on the tri­remes, but on the

DELUBRUM. DEMARCHI of the demi

[templum.]

, the chief magistrates in Attica, and said to have cc 3